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97-480: The amphitheater built in 1937 was a gift of Mr. and Mrs. Howard Frost in memory of their son, John Laurence Frost, who graduated in 1935 and died of polio in the same year. It is a tree lined, grassy, tiered 20-acre (81,000 m) bowl designed by landscape architect Leslie Kiler . Throughout the years, the amphitheater has been the host to many events including a prominent speech by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1992. The Grateful Dead played 14 shows at

194-532: A 1963 plot to remove him from power, possibly playing a leading role. Also in 1963, Brezhnev succeeded Frol Kozlov , another Khrushchev protégé, as Secretary of the Central Committee , positioning him as Khrushchev's likely successor. Khrushchev made him Second Secretary , or deputy party leader, in 1964. After returning from Scandinavia and Czechoslovakia in October 1964, Khrushchev, unaware of

291-527: A Presidency formed a part of Brezhnev's attempts at sidelining Nikolai Podgorny , who, as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, was the formal head of state and first-ranked in diplomatic protocol; an alternative path to making Brezhnev head of state, by establishing a collegial State Council similar to those of East Germany , Bulgaria , and Romania , of which he would be the chairman,

388-928: A campaign to liberalise the Soviet Union. Notwithstanding the backlash to his regime's policies in the mid-1980s, Brezhnev's rule has received consistently high approval ratings in public polls conducted in post-Soviet Russia. Brezhnev was born on 19 December 1906 in Kamenskoye (now Kamianske, Ukraine ) within the Yekaterinoslav Governorate of the Russian Empire , to metalworker Ilya Yakovlevich Brezhnev (1874–1934) and his wife, Natalia Denisovna Mazalova (1886–1975). His parents lived in Brezhnevo ( Kursky District, Kursk Oblast , Russia) before moving to Kamenskoye. Brezhnev's ethnicity

485-464: A decline in productivity and labor discipline. While Brezhnev, albeit "sporadically", through Alexei Kosygin , attempted to reform the economy in the late 1960s and 1970s, he failed to produce any positive results. One of these reforms was the economic reform of 1965 , initiated by Kosygin, though its origins are often traced back to the Khrushchev Era. The reform was ultimately cancelled by

582-701: A deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union , the Soviet Union's highest legislative body. In July that year he was sent to the Moldavian SSR and appointed Party First Secretary of the Communist Party of Moldova , where he was responsible for completing the introduction of collective agriculture. Konstantin Chernenko , a loyal addition to the "mafia", was working in Moldova as head of

679-504: A five-year term, then turn over presidential elections to the public beginning in the planned 1995 presidential election. The presidency was an executive post, based on a mixture of the US and French presidencies. Prior to the creation of the post of president, the de jure head of state of the Soviet Union was the chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet , who was often called

776-518: A hectare. These measures removed important obstacles for the expansion of agricultural output but did not solve the problem. Under Brezhnev, private plots yielded 30% of the national agricultural production when they cultivated only 4% of the land . This was seen by some as proof that de-collectivization was necessary to prevent Soviet agriculture from collapsing, but leading Soviet politicians shrank from supporting such drastic measures due to ideological and political interests. The underlying problems were

873-542: A major general during World War II. Following the war's end, Brezhnev was promoted to the party's Central Committee in 1952 and became a full member of the Politburo by 1957. In 1964, he consolidated enough power to replace Nikita Khrushchev as First Secretary of the CPSU , the most powerful position in the country. During his tenure, Brezhnev's governance improved the Soviet Union's international standing while stabilizing

970-890: A minor one, in public support. The standard of living in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) had fallen behind that of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (GSSR) and the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic (ESSR) under Brezhnev; this led many Russians to believe that the policies of the Soviet Government were hurting the Russian population . The state usually moved workers from one job to another, which ultimately became an ineradicable feature in

1067-458: A par with the Supreme Soviet, and able to put himself in opposition to the Supreme Soviet. The president in the U.S.S.R. is a collegium, it is the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, including the President of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, elected, not by the whole population, but by the Supreme Soviet, and accountable to the Supreme Soviet. Historical experience shows that such a structure of

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1164-505: A rapid shift of investment to satisfy Soviet consumers and lead to an even higher standard of living. This did not happen. During 1928–1973, the Soviet Union was growing economically at a faster pace than the United States and Western Europe. However, objective comparisons are difficult. The USSR was hampered by the effects of World War II, which had left most of the western USSR in ruins; however, Western aid and Soviet espionage in

1261-425: A shortage of skilled workers, a ruined rural culture, and inappropriate farm machinery for small collective farms. A significant reform was necessary, but it was not supported due to ideological and political considerations. Brezhnev's agricultural policy reinforced the conventional methods for organizing the collective farms . Output quotas continued to be imposed centrally. Khrushchev's policy of amalgamating farms

1358-503: A tank factory. During Stalin's Great Purge , Brezhnev was one of many apparatchiks who exploited the resulting openings in the government and the party to advance rapidly in the regime's ranks. In 1936, he became director of the Dniprodzerzhynsk Metallurgical Technicum (a technical college) and was transferred to the regional center of Dnipropetrovsk . In May 1937, he became deputy chairman of

1455-605: The Central Committee , though the Committee admitted that economic problems did exist. After becoming leader of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev would characterize the economy under Brezhnev's rule as "the lowest stage of socialism". Based on its surveillance, the CIA reported that the Soviet economy peaked in the 1970s upon reaching 57% of American GNP. However, beginning around 1975, economic growth began to decline at least in part due to

1552-627: The Era of Stagnation . In addition to pervasive corruption and falling economic growth, this period was characterized by an increasing technological gap between the Soviet Union and the United States. After 1975, Brezhnev's health rapidly deteriorated and he increasingly withdrew from international affairs despite maintaining his hold on power. He died on 10 November 1982 and was succeeded as general secretary by Yuri Andropov . Upon coming to power in 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev denounced Brezhnev's government for its inefficiency and inflexibility before launching

1649-672: The Kazakh SSR , and was promoted to General Secretary in May, following Khrushchev's victory over Malenkov. On the surface his brief was simple: to make the new lands agriculturally productive. In reality, Brezhnev became involved in the development of the Soviet missile and nuclear arms programs, including the Baykonur Cosmodrome . The initially successful Virgin Lands Campaign soon became unproductive and failed to solve

1746-504: The Prague Spring (whose sharp departure from the Soviet model led to its armed suppression in 1968), the reforms provoked a backlash among the party's old guard who proceeded to flock to Brezhnev and strengthened his position within the Soviet leadership. In 1969, Brezhnev further expanded his authority following a clash with Second Secretary Mikhail Suslov and other party officials who thereafter never challenged his supremacy within

1843-864: The Southern Front , with the rank of Brigade-Commissar (Colonel). When the Germans occupied Ukraine in 1942, Brezhnev was sent to the Caucasus as deputy head of political administration of the Transcaucasian Front . In April 1943 he became head of the Political Department of the 18th Army. Later that year, the 18th Army became part of the 1st Ukrainian Front , as the Red Army regained the initiative and advanced westward through Ukraine. The Front's senior political commissar

1940-601: The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 in response to Alexander Dubček 's reforms. Under Brezhnev, the Politburo abandoned Khrushchev's decentralization experiments. By 1966, two years after taking power, Brezhnev abolished the Regional Economic Councils , which were organized to manage the regional economies of the Soviet Union. The Ninth Five-Year Plan delivered a change: for

2037-643: The Yekaterinoslav Governorate of the Russian Empire . After the results of the October Revolution were finalized with the creation of the Soviet Union, Brezhnev joined the Communist party's youth league in 1923 before becoming an official party member in 1929. When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 , he joined the Red Army as a commissar and rose rapidly through the ranks to become

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2134-671: The agitprop department, and one of the officials Brezhnev brought with him from Dnipropetrovsk was the future USSR Minister of the Interior, Nikolai Shchelokov . In 1952, Brezhnev met with Stalin who subsequently promoted him to the Communist Party's Central Committee as a candidate member of the Presidium (formerly the Politburo ) and made him a member of the Secretariat . Following Stalin's death in March 1953, Brezhnev

2231-555: The liberalizing reforms of Khrushchev, and clamping down on cultural freedom. During the Khrushchev years, Brezhnev had supported the leader's denunciations of Stalin's arbitrary rule, the rehabilitation of many of the victims of Stalin's purges, and the cautious liberalization of Soviet intellectual and cultural policy. However, as soon as he became leader of the Soviet Union, he began to reverse this process, and developed an increasingly authoritarian and conservative attitude. By

2328-571: The president of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( Президент Союза Советских Социалистических Республик ), abbreviated as president of the USSR ( Президент СССР ), was the head of state of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics from 15 March 1990 to 25 December 1991. Mikhail Gorbachev was the only person to occupy this office. Gorbachev was also General Secretary of the Communist Party of

2425-432: The " Dnipropetrovsk Mafia " that would greatly aid his rise to power. When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, Brezhnev was, like most middle-ranking Party officials, immediately drafted. He worked to evacuate Dnipropetrovsk's industries before the city fell to the Germans on 26 August, and then was assigned as a political commissar . In October, Brezhnev was made deputy of political administration for

2522-598: The "president" by non-Soviet sources. For most of the Soviet Union's existence, all effective executive political power was in the hands of the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , with the chairman of the Presidium exercising largely symbolic and figurehead duties. Starting with Leonid Brezhnev in 1977, the last four general secretaries—Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov , Konstantin Chernenko , and Gorbachev—simultaneously served as de jure head of state during their time in office. The president

2619-405: The 1970s from the level held in the 1950s and 1960s, they likewise began to lag behind that of Western Europe and the United States. Eventually, the stagnation reached a point that the United States began growing an average of 1% per year above the growth rate of the Soviet Union. The stagnation of the Soviet economy was fueled even further by the Soviet Union's ever-widening technological gap with

2716-655: The Amphitheater in 1982, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, and 1989. Since 2012, the Stanford Concert Network, a student organization, has hosted the annual Frost Music and Arts Festival at the Amphitheater each May, which has featured headliners Modest Mouse , MGMT , Dispatch , Flume , and Fetty Wap , as well as Eyes Lips Eyes , Benjamin Francis Leftwich , Delorean , Kuroma , Paper Void , Yeasayer , Kaytranada , AlunaGeorge , and Sage

2813-512: The Brezhnev era, the majority of civilian services deteriorated and living conditions for Soviet citizens fell rapidly. Diseases were on the rise because of the decaying healthcare system. The living space remained rather small by First World standards, with the average Soviet person living on 13.4 square metres. Thousands of Moscow inhabitants became homeless, most of them living in shacks, doorways and parked trams. Nutrition ceased to improve in

2910-580: The Central Committee wanted him to undergo punishment of some kind, but Brezhnev, who had already been assured the office of the General Secretary, saw little reason to punish Khrushchev further. Brezhnev was appointed First Secretary on the same day, but at the time was believed to be a transitional leader, who would only "keep the shop" until another leader was appointed. Alexei Kosygin was appointed head of government , and Mikoyan

3007-454: The Gemini . The amphitheater usually hosts a concert (either jazz or classical) and fireworks on July 3. 37°25′50″N 122°9′57″W  /  37.43056°N 122.16583°W  / 37.43056; -122.16583 Soviet President The president of the Soviet Union ( Russian : Президент Советского Союза , romanized :  Prezident Sovetskogo Soyuza ), officially

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3104-563: The IBM/360. However, following the adoption of the IBM/360 system, the Soviet Union was never able to build enough platforms, let alone improve on its design. As its technology continued to fall behind the West, the Soviet Union increasingly resorted to pirating Western designs. The last significant reform undertaken by the Kosygin government , and some believe in the pre- perestroika era,

3201-601: The Kamenskoye Metallurgical Technicum in 1935 and became a metallurgical engineer in the iron and steel industries of eastern Ukraine. Brezhnev joined the Communist Party youth division, the Komsomol , in 1923, and the Party itself in 1929. From 1935 to 1936 he completed the compulsory term of military service. After taking courses at a tank school, he served as a political commissar in

3298-586: The Kamenskoye city soviet. In May 1938, after Nikita Khrushchev had taken control of the Ukrainian communist party, he was appointed head of the propaganda department of the Dnipropetrovsk regional communist party, and later, in 1939, a regional Party Secretary, in charge of the city's defense industries. Here, he took the first steps toward building a network of supporters which came to be known as

3395-535: The Politburo became aggressively anti-reformist , Kosygin was able to convince both Brezhnev and the politburo to leave the reformist communist leader János Kádár of the Hungarian People's Republic alone because of an economic reform entitled New Economic Mechanism (NEM), which granted limited permission for the establishment of retail markets. In the Polish People's Republic , another approach

3492-574: The Politburo issued a resolution titled, "On the Further Development of Specialisation and Concentration of Agricultural Production on the Basis of Inter-Farm Co-operation and Agro-Industrial Integration". The resolution ordered kolkhozes close to each other to collaborate in their efforts to increase production. In the meantime, the state's subsidies to the food-and-agriculture sector did not prevent bankrupt farms from operating and rises in

3589-491: The Politburo. Brezhnev was adept at politics within the Soviet power structure. He was a team player and never acted rashly or hastily. Unlike Khrushchev, he did not make decisions without substantial consultation from his colleagues, and was always willing to hear their opinions. During the early 1970s, Brezhnev consolidated his domestic position. In 1977, he forced the retirement of Podgorny and became once again Chairman of

3686-548: The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union , making this position equivalent to that of an executive president. While Kosygin remained Premier until shortly before his death in 1980 (replaced by Nikolai Tikhonov as Premier), Brezhnev was the dominant figure in the Soviet Union from the mid-1970s until his death in 1982. Brezhnev has defined the iconic "Developed Socialism" as the Soviet-style socialism , which he believed had successfully constructed socialism in

3783-779: The Soviet Army with the rank of major general in August 1946. In May 1946, he was appointed the first secretary of the Zaporizhzhia regional party committee, where his deputy was Andrei Kirilenko , one of the most important members of the Dnipropetrovsk Mafia . After working on reconstruction projects in Ukraine, he returned to Dnipropetrovsk in January 1948 as regional first party secretary. In 1950 Brezhnev became

3880-403: The Soviet Union between March 1985 and August 1991. He derived an increasingly large share of his power from his position as president through his resignation as General Secretary following the 1991 coup d'état attempt . The idea of the institution of a sole head of state (instead of collegial leadership) first appeared during the preparation of the draft 1936 Soviet Constitution . However, at

3977-411: The Soviet Union and reached Vladimir Lenin 's transition stage from socialism to communism. Brezhnev emphasized the advanced technological developments in the USSR with full electrification of the country, the use of nuclear power in production, computer planning, as well as a highly mechanized agriculture. He believed that all social strata within the USSR were closer to each other than ever before due to

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4074-455: The Soviet Union fell further and further behind in computer technology, which proved decisive for the Western economies. By 1973 the Era of Stagnation was apparent. The Era of Stagnation , a term coined by Mikhail Gorbachev , was attributed to a compilation of factors, including the ongoing "arms race" ; the Soviet Union's decision to participate in international trade (thus abandoning

4171-496: The Soviet Union. However, he was initially forced to govern as part of an unofficial Triumvirate (also known by its Russian name Troika ) alongside the country's Premier , Alexei Kosygin , and Nikolai Podgorny , a Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and later Chairman of the Presidium . Due to Khrushchev's disregard for the rest of the Politburo upon combining his leadership of the party with that of

4268-546: The Soviet collective leadership to remove him from the Party-State Control Committee before having the body dissolved altogether on 6 December 1965. By the end of 1965, Brezhnev had Podgorny removed from the Secretariat, thereby significantly curtailing the latter's ability to build support within the party apparatus. In the ensuing years, Podgorny's network of supporters was steadily eroded as

4365-476: The Soviet economy was expanding at a faster rate than that of the American economy (albeit by a very small margin). The USSR also kept a steady pace with the economies of Western Europe. Between 1964 and 1973, the Soviet economy stood at roughly half the output per head of Western Europe and a little more than one third that of the U.S. In 1973, the process of catching up with the rest of the West came to an end as

4462-425: The Soviet government, a plenum of the Central Committee in October 1964 forbade any single individual from holding both the offices of General Secretary and Premier . This arrangement would persist until the late 1970s when Brezhnev firmly secured his position as the most powerful figure in the Soviet Union. During his consolidation of power, Brezhnev first had to contend with the ambitions of Alexander Shelepin ,

4559-463: The Soviet industry. Government industries such as factories, mines and offices were staffed by undisciplined personnel who put a great effort into not doing their jobs; this ultimately led, according to Robert Service, to a "work-shy workforce". The Soviet Government had no effective counter-measure; it was extremely difficult, if not impossible to replace ineffective workers because of the country's lack of unemployment. While some areas improved during

4656-404: The United States, he went elsewhere, such as to Argentina . Trade was necessary because the Soviet Union's domestic production of fodder crops was severely deficient. Another sector that was hitting the wall was the sugar beet harvest, which had declined by 2% in the 1970s. Brezhnev's way of resolving these issues was to increase state investment. Politburo member Gennady Voronov advocated for

4753-449: The West. Due to the cumbersome procedures of the centralized planning system, Soviet industries were incapable of the innovation needed to meet public demand. This was especially notable in the field of computers. In response to the lack of uniform standards for peripherals and digital capacity in the Soviet computer industry, Brezhnev's regime ordered an end to all independent computer development and required all future models to be based on

4850-572: The coup attempt, Gorbachev remained president until the country's dissolution , when he resigned and declared his office to be extinct. The powers of the position were subsequently ceded to the new President of Russia , Boris Yeltsin . With his right hand on a red bound copy of the Soviet Constitution , placed on a small table before the Congress, President-elect Gorbachev took the following oath: " I solemnly swear to faithfully serve

4947-403: The division of each farm's workforce into what he called "links". These "links" would be entrusted with specific functions, such as to run a farm's dairy unit. His argument was that the larger the work force, the less responsible they felt. This program had been proposed to Joseph Stalin by Andrey Andreyev in the 1940s and had been opposed by Khrushchev before and after Stalin's death. Voronov

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5044-459: The dominant leader of Soviet foreign policy in the Politburo. Within the same timeframe, Kosygin was also in charge of economic administration in his role as Chairman of the Council of Ministers. However, his position was weakened following his enactment of several economic reforms in 1965 that collectively came to be known within the Party as the " Kosygin reforms ". Due largely to coinciding with

5141-641: The eighteen years that Brezhnev ruled the Soviet Union, average income per head increased by half; three-quarters of this growth came in the 1960s and early 1970s. During the second half of Brezhnev's premiership, the average income per head grew by one-quarter. In the first half of the Brezhnev period, income per head increased by 3.5% per annum; slightly less growth than what it had been the previous years. This can be explained by Brezhnev's reversal of most of Khrushchev's policies. Consumption per head rose by an estimated 70% under Brezhnev, but with three-quarters of this growth happening before 1973 and only one-quarter in

5238-482: The ending of schemes. When Khrushchev left the public spotlight, there was no popular commotion, as most Soviet citizens, including the intelligentsia , anticipated a period of stabilization , steady development of Soviet society and continuing economic growth in the years ahead. Political scientist George W. Breslauer has compared Khrushchev and Brezhnev as leaders. He argues they took different routes to build legitimate authority, depending on their personalities and

5335-542: The first time industrial consumer products out-produced industrial capital goods. Consumer goods such as watches, furniture and radios were produced in abundance. The plan still left the bulk of the state's investment in industrial capital-goods production. This outcome was not seen as a positive sign for the future of the Soviet state by the majority of top party functionaries within the government; by 1975 consumer goods were expanding 9% slower than industrial capital-goods. The policy continued despite Brezhnev's commitment to make

5432-561: The former chairman of the KGB and current head of the Party-State Control Committee . In early 1965, Shelepin began calling for the restoration of "obedience and order" within the Soviet Union as part of his own bid to seize power. Towards this end, he exploited his control over both state and party organs to leverage support within the regime. Recognizing Shelepin as an imminent threat to his position, Brezhnev mobilized

5529-603: The growing Soviet food crisis. Brezhnev was recalled to Moscow in 1956. The harvest in the years following the Virgin Lands Campaign was disappointing, which would have hurt his political career had he remained in Kazakhstan. In February 1956 Brezhnev returned to Moscow and was made candidate member of the Politburo assigned in control of the defence industry, the space program including the Baykonur Cosmodrome , heavy industry , and capital construction. He

5626-399: The growing shortage of skilled workers, a wrecked rural culture, the payment of workers in proportion to the quantity rather than the quality of their work, and too large farm machinery for the small collective farms and the roadless countryside. In the face of this, Brezhnev's only options were schemes such as large land reclamation and irrigation projects, or of course, radical reform. Over

5723-413: The highly developed productive force in the country. Therefore, the dictatorship of the proletariat has, according to Brezhnev, moved towards a people's government. Brezhnev believed that all socialist countries would go through the same socialist development and social transformation of the Soviet model regardless of their national and material conditions. Brezhnev's stabilization policy included ending

5820-450: The idea of economic isolation) while ignoring changes occurring in Western societies; increased authoritarianism in Soviet society; the invasion of Afghanistan ; the bureaucracy's transformation into an undynamic gerontocracy ; lack of economic reform; pervasive political corruption, and other structural problems within the country. Domestically, social stagnation was stimulated by the growing demands of unskilled workers, labor shortages and

5917-503: The late 1970s, while rationing of staple food products returned to Sverdlovsk for instance. The state provided recreation facilities and annual holidays for hard-working citizens. Soviet trade unions rewarded hard-working members and their families with beach vacations in Crimea and Georgia . Social rigidification became a common feature of Soviet society. During the Stalin era in

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6014-439: The massive arms buildup and widespread military interventionism under Brezhnev's leadership substantially expanded Soviet influence abroad, particularly in the Middle East and Africa. By the mid-1970s, numerous observers argued the Soviet Union had surpassed the United States to become the world's strongest military power. Conversely, Brezhnev's disregard for political reform ushered in an era of socioeconomic decline referred to as

6111-433: The mid-1970s, there were an estimated 5,000 political and religious prisoners across the Soviet Union, living in grievous conditions and suffering from malnutrition. Many of these prisoners were considered by the Soviet state to be mentally unfit and were hospitalized in mental asylums across the Soviet Union. Under Brezhnev's rule, the KGB infiltrated most, if not all, anti-government organisations, which ensured that there

6208-411: The ministries. With Kosygin's death in 1980, and due to his successor Nikolai Tikhonov 's conservative approach to economics, very little of the reform was actually carried out. The Eleventh Five-Year Plan of the Soviet Union delivered a disappointing result: a change in growth from 5 to 4%. During the earlier Tenth Five-Year Plan , there had been target of 6.1% growth, but this was not met. Brezhnev

6305-472: The office of First Secretary but retain him as the Chairman of the Council of Ministers , the majority, headed by Brezhnev, wanted to remove him from active politics altogether. Brezhnev and Nikolai Podgorny appealed to the Central Committee, blaming Khrushchev for economic failures, and accusing him of voluntarism and immodest behavior. Influenced by Brezhnev's allies, Politburo members voted on 14 October to remove Khrushchev from office. Some members of

6402-435: The opinion of several Central Committee members. After some false starts, fellow conspirator Mikhail Suslov phoned Khrushchev on 12 October and requested that he return to Moscow to discuss the state of Soviet agriculture . Finally, Khrushchev understood what was happening, and said to Mikoyan, "If it's me who is the question, I will not make a fight of it." While a minority headed by Mikoyan wanted to remove Khrushchev from

6499-460: The peoples of our nations, to strictly observe the Soviet Constitution, to guarantee the rights and freedoms of citizens and to conscientiously fulfill the high responsibilities placed in me as president of the Soviet Union. " Leonid Brezhnev First , then General Secretary of the CPSU 1964–1982 Brezhnev Era Foreign policy [REDACTED] Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (19 December 1906 – 10 November 1982)

6596-517: The period 1941–1945 (culminating in cash, material and equipment deliveries for military and industrial purposes) had allowed the Russians to leapfrog many Western economies in the development of advanced technologies, particularly in the fields of nuclear technology, radio communications, agriculture and heavy manufacturing. By the early 1970s, the Soviet Union had the world's second largest industrial capacity, and produced more steel, oil, pig-iron , cement and tractors than any other country. Before 1973,

6693-497: The plot, went on holiday in Pitsunda resort on the Black Sea . Upon his return, his Presidium officers congratulated him for his work in office. Anastas Mikoyan visited Khrushchev, hinting that he should not be too complacent about his present situation. Vladimir Semichastny , head of the KGB , was a crucial part of the conspiracy, as it was his duty to inform Khrushchev if anyone was plotting against his leadership. Nikolay Ignatov , whom Khrushchev had sacked, discreetly requested

6790-501: The position of its ruling party at home. Whereas Khrushchev regularly enacted policies without consulting the Politburo, Brezhnev was careful to minimize dissent among the party elite by reaching decisions through consensus thereby restoring the semblance of collective leadership . Additionally, while pushing for détente between the two Cold War superpowers, he achieved nuclear parity with the United States and strengthened Moscow's dominion over Central and Eastern Europe . Furthermore,

6887-416: The powers it had enjoyed under Stalin, although there was no return to the purges of the 1930s and 1940s, and Stalin's legacy remained largely discredited among the Soviet intelligentsia . Between 1960 and 1970, Soviet agriculture output increased by 3% annually. Industry also improved: during the Eighth Five-Year Plan (1966–1970), the output of factories and mines increased by 138% compared to 1960. While

6984-403: The price of produce were offset by rises in the cost of oil and other resources. By 1977, oil cost 84% more than it did in the late 1960s. The cost of other resources had also climbed by the late 1970s. Brezhnev's answer to these problems was to issue two decrees, one in 1977 and one in 1981, which called for an increase in the maximum size of privately owned plots within the Soviet Union to half

7081-474: The protégés he cultivated in his rise to power were removed from the Central Committee. By 1977, Brezhnev was secure enough in his position to replace Podgorny as head of state and remove him from the Politburo. After sidelining Shelepin and Podgorny as threats to his leadership in 1965, Brezhnev directed his attentions to his remaining political rival, Alexei Kosygin. In the 1960s, U.S. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger initially perceived Kosygin to be

7178-525: The real power resided with Khrushchev as First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party and Premier. Khrushchev's position as Party leader was secure until about 1962, but as he aged, he grew more erratic and his performance undermined the confidence of his fellow leaders. The Soviet Union's mounting economic problems also increased the pressure on Khrushchev's leadership. Brezhnev remained outwardly loyal to Khrushchev, but became involved in

7275-480: The regime's sustained prioritization of heavy industry and military spending over consumer goods . Additionally, Soviet agriculture was unable to feed the urban population, let alone provide for a rising standard of living which the government promised as the fruits of "mature socialism" and on which industrial productivity depended. Ultimately, the GNP growth rate slowed to 1% to 2% per year. As GNP growth rates decreased in

7372-479: The second half of his rule. Most of the increase in consumer production in the early Brezhnev era can be attributed to the Kosygin reform . When the USSR's economic growth stalled in the 1970s, the standard of living and housing quality improved significantly. Instead of paying more attention to the economy, the Soviet leadership under Brezhnev tried to improve the living standard in the Soviet Union by extending social benefits . This led to an increase, though

7469-403: The state of public opinion. Khrushchev worked to decentralize the government system and empower local leadership, which had been wholly subservient; Brezhnev sought to centralize authority, going so far as to weaken the roles of the other members of the Central Committee and the Politburo. Upon replacing Khrushchev as the party's First Secretary, Brezhnev became the de jure supreme authority of

7566-415: The suggestion of the informal first person of the USSR, Joseph Stalin , who could compete with the official head of state, the idea was rejected. He formally justified the reason for this rejection as "[running] counter to the spirit of [the] Constitution", and elaborated: According to the system of our Constitution there must not be an individual president in the U.S.S.R., elected by the whole population on

7663-437: The supreme bodies is the most democratic, and safeguards the country against undesirable contingencies. Nonetheless, the establishment of a singular Presidency was considered during the elaboration of the next Soviet Constitution , both at the first attempt under Nikita Khrushchev in the early to mid-1960s and at the second, successful attempt under Leonid Brezhnev in the mid-to-late 1970s. The latter attempt at establishing

7760-526: Was Nikita Khrushchev , who had supported Brezhnev's career since the prewar years. Brezhnev had met Khrushchev in 1931, shortly after joining the Party, and as he continued his rise through the ranks, he became Khrushchev's protégé. At the end of the war in Europe, Brezhnev was chief political commissar of the 4th Ukrainian Front , which entered Prague in May 1945, after the German surrender . Brezhnev left

7857-436: Was a Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until his death in 1982, and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (head of state) from 1960 to 1964 and again from 1977 to 1982. His 18-year term as General Secretary was second only to Joseph Stalin 's in duration. Brezhnev was born to a working-class family in Kamenskoye (now Kamianske, Ukraine ) within

7954-432: Was a joint decision of the Central Committee and the Council of Ministers named "Improving planning and reinforcing the effects of the economic mechanism on raising the effectiveness in production and improving the quality of work", more commonly known as the 1979 reform . The reform, in contrast to the 1965 reform, sought to increase the central government's economic involvement by enhancing the duties and responsibilities of

8051-489: Was a record-high state investment in farming during the 1970s, the evaluation of agricultural output continued to focus on the grain harvest. Despite some improvement, there were still problems such as insufficient domestic production of fodder crops and a declining sugar beet harvest. Brezhnev attempted to address these issues by increasing state investment and allowing privately owned plots to be larger. However, these actions were not effective in solving fundamental problems like

8148-602: Was able to defer economic collapse by trading with Western Europe and the Arab World . The Soviet Union still outproduced the United States in the heavy industry sector during the Brezhnev era. Another dramatic result of Brezhnev's rule was that certain Eastern Bloc countries became more economically advanced than the Soviet Union. Brezhnev's agricultural policy reinforced traditional ways of organizing collective farms and enforced output quotas centrally. Although there

8245-407: Was also considered. In both instances, the collegial Presidium of the Supreme Soviet was ultimately retained as the highest body of power in the country. Members of the Communist Party voted on establishing a presidency on 7 February 1990. The first and only presidential election took place on 14 March 1990. The Congress of People's Deputies decided that they would elect the first president into

8342-566: Was also unsuccessful; Brezhnev turned him down, and in 1973 he was removed from the Politburo. Experimentation with "links" was not disallowed on a local basis, with Mikhail Gorbachev , the then First Secretary of the Stavropol Regional Committee, experimenting with links in his region. In the meantime, the Soviet government's involvement in agriculture was, according to Robert Service, otherwise "unimaginative" and "incompetent". Facing mounting problems with agriculture,

8439-405: Was continued by Brezhnev, because he shared Khrushchev's belief that bigger kolkhozes would increase productivity. Brezhnev pushed for an increase in state investments in farming, which amounted to an all-time high in the 1970s of 27% of all state investment – this figure did not include investments in farm equipment. In 1981 alone, 33 billion U.S. dollars (by contemporary exchange rate)

8536-518: Was demoted to first deputy head of the political directorate of the Army and Navy. Brezhnev's patron Khrushchev succeeded Stalin as General Secretary, while Khrushchev's rival Georgy Malenkov succeeded Stalin as Chairman of the Council of Ministers . Brezhnev sided with Khrushchev against Malenkov, but only for several years. In February 1954, he was appointed second secretary of the Communist Party of

8633-565: Was given as Ukrainian in some documents, including his passport, and Russian in others. A statement confirming that he regarded himself as a Russian can be found in his book Memories (1979), where he wrote: "And so, according to nationality, I am Russian, I am a proletarian, a hereditary metallurgist." Like many youths in the years after the Russian Revolution of 1917 , he received a technical education , at first in land management and then in metallurgy . He graduated from

8730-499: Was initially elected by the Congress of People's Deputies and served as ex officio chairman of that body, but all future elections were to have been by popular vote. The president reported to the Supreme Soviet . On 24 September 1990, Gorbachev persuaded the Supreme Soviet to give him the power to rule by unrestricted decree (on the economy, law and order, and the appointment of government personnel) until 31 March 1992. Another power

8827-493: Was invested into agriculture. Agricultural output in 1980 was 21% higher than the average production rate between 1966 and 1970. Cereal crop output increased by 18%. These improved results were not encouraging. In the Soviet Union the criterion for assessing agricultural output was the grain harvest. The import of cereal, which began under Khrushchev, had in fact become a normal phenomenon by Soviet standards. When Brezhnev had difficulties sealing commercial trade agreements with

8924-500: Was killed or unable to be in office, the vice president would become president. The only person to hold this office was Gennady Yanayev , who the following year became the leader of the Gang of Eight which attempted the August coup , assuming the position of acting president of the Soviet Union on 19 August 1991. After three days the coup collapsed and Gorbachev was restored. Following

9021-409: Was little to no opposition against him or his power base. However, Brezhnev refrained from the all-out violence seen under Stalin's rule. The trial of the writers Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky in 1966, the first such public trials since Stalin's reign, marked the reversion to a repressive cultural policy. Under Yuri Andropov the state security service (in the form of the KGB ) regained some of

9118-484: Was now a senior member of Khrushchev's entourage, and in June 1957 he backed Khrushchev in his struggle with Malenkov's Stalinist old guard in the Party leadership, the so-called " Anti-Party Group ". Following the Stalinists' defeat, Brezhnev became a full member of the Politburo. In May 1960, he was promoted to the post of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet , making him the nominal head of state, although

9215-552: Was retained as head of state . Brezhnev and his companions supported the general party line taken after Stalin's death but felt that Khrushchev's reforms had removed much of the Soviet Union's stability. One reason for Khrushchev's ouster was that he continually overruled other party members, and was, according to the plotters, "in contempt of the party's collective ideals". The Soviet newspaper Pravda wrote of new enduring themes such as collective leadership , scientific planning, consultation with experts, organisational regularity and

9312-416: Was taken in 1970 under the leadership of Edward Gierek ; he believed that the government needed Western loans to facilitate the rapid growth of heavy industry. The Soviet leadership gave its approval for this, as the Soviet Union could not afford to maintain its massive subsidy for the Eastern Bloc in the form of cheap oil and gas exports. The Soviet Union did not accept all kinds of reforms, an example being

9409-402: Was the right to declare direct presidential rule in troubled areas and abolish democratic elected bodies if necessary. During the election of the president several candidates were nominated, among leading contenders were KGB Chairman Vadim Bakatin and Premier Nikolai Ryzhkov . The president's powers were: The vice president of the Soviet Union was the deputy head of state. If the president

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